Chapter 13
1. The God in the Box at the Bottom of the Water
It's nothing new to say that the worst things tend to overlap, but at this point, it starts to feel like a conspiracy.
The plane we were supposed to take was canceled due to strong winds, throwing off our schedule. Because of that, it coincided with the day Miyaki couldn't move due to handover duties from her previous department. I said I could go alone, but something bad had happened in the village we were heading to, so we ended up having to go in pairs just in case.
This selection of personnel was the worst part of all.
While Miyaki was calming me down with a faint smile as I complained in the office, I saw a car silently glide into the parking lot through the window. I recognized both the car model and the shadow reflected in the driver's seat.
"If the person getting out of that car shows up, tell them I'm dead."
I said that to Miyaki and was about to leave the room when I heard a knock at the door.
Miyaki opened the door honestly and gave a small bow to the person on the other side.
"Katagishi is currently a bit..."
"Dead again, huh?"
A hoarse, gloomy voice was heard.
"Yeah, dead again."
The owner of the voice let out a small laugh.
"I came to give condolence money to my brother-in-law."
Leaning against the steering wheel of the rental car, I looked toward the passenger seat.
The thought of having to work while staring at my brother-in-law Rokuhara's gloomy, sickly pale profile made me feel depressed. This is the worst.
"You don't seem too enthusiastic."
"I told you what kind of place that village you asked me to go to was like."
Rokuhara twisted both his eyes and the mole under one in a grimace.
"This time's better. After all, the problematic village is already at the bottom of the water."
"What are you talking about? That makes it even worse."
Water droplets on the window formed shapes like crushed flowers.
"The reason we don't destroy Territorial Divine Offenses isn't just because we can't. If something goes wrong afterward, it'd be irreversible forever."
"Just like human relationships."
I decided not to listen to Rokuhara's worthless conclusion.
As the wipers cleared the raindrops from the windshield, the massive outer wall of the dam, blurring the boundary with the gray sky, came into view.
As soon as we parked and got out, we heard a sound like a giant beast made of water.
The rain that had started the day before yesterday and still fell in scattered drops must have raised the lake's water level, increasing the discharge volume several times over.
The dam wall, buried among trees darkened to deep green by the rain, resembled a prison and bore white marks like claw scratches left by the water.
A man who appeared to be a security guard came running toward us, his vinyl raincoat flapping in the wind and a red baton in one hand.
"Thank you for coming all the way from Tokyo... No, I should've called you before it became urgent like this, but it's a rather unusual matter."
The guard, who had started talking hurriedly, paused and then waved his baton while saying, "This way first," pointing to a building beyond the parking lot. Rokuhara and I were guided like a car.
Inside the dam management office, fluorescent lights and heating filled the space as if to counter the darkness and cold outside, but it still felt somehow uncomfortable.
The room the guard led us into had desks and computers arranged in order, and monitors covering an entire wall blinked with green graphs and various figures.
An employee, illuminated by the dim light of the LCD screen, sat there looking lost and noticed me.
Rokuhara and I sat down in the chairs in front of him.
"He's the witness, just so you know."
The guard said this while lining up mugs filled with coffee.
"A witness to what?"
The employee lowered his gaze, moving his clasped fingers. The shoulders of the navy work jacket over his white shirt were still wet.
"It's been raining a lot lately... Last night, my boss and I detected an unusual noise at the dam, so we were investigating the cause. Normally, we wouldn't go to the site because it's dangerous—
but my boss insisted on going, and I tried to stop him... Also, everyone knows not to use the elevator when it's raining, but he used it anyway."
"Is the elevator out of order or something?"
The man shook his head at Rokuhara's interjection.
"It's not that, but anyway, it's bad... So, we waited thirty minutes, then an hour, but he didn't come back. I thought maybe he fell into the dam. I didn't want to lose it myself, so I called someone else first and then went to check. And when I went to look, he wasn't at the bottom of the dam—he was still in the elevator. Sitting there, pale-faced and paralyzed with fear."
The man finally looked up.
"Even when I talked to him, his responses were weird. Saying stuff like, 'I'm not eating dinner here, I'm heading home,' or 'Is there anything I should pick up on the way back?' When I shook his shoulder and told him to get a grip, he finally looked at me and said, 'I heard my dead wife's voice.'"
Rokuhara looked at me. I decided not to ask whether the boss had a history of mental illness or drug use.
"It sounds stupid, but I really saw it. When I dragged my boss out of the box, paralyzed with fear. At first, I thought the dam lights were reflecting in the elevator window in the darkness. But when I asked someone higher up, they just said, 'That's how it is,' like it was nothing..."
"What exactly did you see?"
Instead of answering, the employee twisted his body halfway and operated the keyboard with one hand. The monitor switched from green graphs to a fixed-point camera view of the dam.
The dam, with watermarks resembling claw marks, looked terribly stained and gave off a dark impression.
The murky, mud-colored water and the trees lining the horizon made it feel like we were staring at a gloomy forest and ground.
I've heard some dams become popular tourist spots, but this place, with its mechanical coldness mixed with unfathomable natural horror, seems unlikely.
As I kept watching the footage of massive water crashing down and shattering, I noticed one spot remained a black shadow, possibly due to a camera malfunction. The area around it was dimly lit by a searchlight.
I strained my eyes. I could clearly see what it was, but my mind refused to accept it.
A human figure was standing on the water's surface, where the endless falling water splashed.
Judging by the scale, it had to be at least four meters tall to appear like that. More than anything, a living human couldn't possibly endure that water pressure and just stand there blankly.
"That's not a light. It's eyes."
Rokuhara touched his chin and peered into the monitor.
The light that looked like a searchlight was actually emitted from the head of a human-shaped figure, its entire body black and blurred like a shadow. It looked like two oval-shaped golden eyes were floating there.
"So it just stays like that and doesn't attack or anything?"
"Yes, according to others, it's appeared multiple times before whenever it rains."
The employee stood up and looked at the monitor with us.
"Is there some connection between 'that' and not using the elevator?"
As he asked, Rokuhara brought the rim of the mug to his lips. I couldn't believe he could drink coffee while making eye contact with something so unknown through the monitor.
"Probably... I think there is, but I'm still new here, so I'm not really sure... My boss probably knew more."
Rokuhara looked at me.
"Wanna check it out? Using the elevator?"
"I won't stop you. But I'm not going."
I looked at the monitor again. The long, black figure didn't move an inch. The golden eyes, seeping into the overcast sky and water surface, didn't feel malicious—if anything, they seemed somewhat sorrowful.
Since it doesn't make a move from its side, there's not much we can do either. It's always like this. If these monsters could be judged by good and evil, it'd be easier. But they don't even have clear intentions—just their existence alone brings something with it.
"Where is your boss now?"
"In the hospital."
After the employee answered, the management office fell into a silence that felt like time had stopped. The monitor's footage could've been mistaken for a still image.
I finished my coffee and set the cup down.
"We're stuck like this. Let's head out, investigate, and come back."
"It's about that time anyway. How about lunch? You haven't eaten since morning, right, brother?"
"Yeah."
After replying, I suddenly felt my throat tighten, as if something was blocking it.
The voice had sounded so natural that I didn't even question it until after I'd responded. Whose voice was that just now?
Rokuhara and the employee silently placed their mugs on the tray. It couldn't have been either of them. The voice I heard was a woman's.
And though I thought I had forgotten it, that hallucination brought it back so vividly that I hated myself for remembering it.
Rokuhara gestured for me to hand over my cup. To call this man my brother—
I glared at the black shadow on the monitor.
There's no way it could see me from over there.
But it looked like the golden light had slightly shifted in shape.
I couldn't tell whether it had smiled or narrowed its eyes in pity.